ireland abroad

september 18-october 5, 2025

Opening reception | September 18, 2025 - 4:00-6:00 pm

The artworks exhibited in Ireland Abroad at CU Denver Experience Gallery reflect on cultural practice, landscape, human presence, and social structure through installation, drawing, writing, photography, performance, film, painting, print making, social engagement, and temporal land art. Set in the grounds of a 16th century castle in the stunning Burren landscape on Ireland's Atlantic coast in the Burren College of Art, this four-week intensive art practice study abroad experience resulted in copious visual responses and personal growth. We are excited to present the results of the rich visual research of CU Denver travelers in this exhibition, with works that will prove an impetus for each participants' artwork and creativity for future years to come.

Thirteen students and two faculty share the results of their month-long CU Denver study abroad experience, Interdisciplinary Art in Ireland. The artists worked in all expressive media to re-examine the tools, concepts, and goals of their creative practice in response to experimentation and explorations conducted in the Irish landscape and in their studios at the Burren College of Art. The experience was akin to an artist residency, allowing each to interpret their relationship between place and the creative process

Traveling abroad provides unique opportunities, and perspectives were altered by this immersive and rich experience on the west coast of Ireland. Projects initiated as social engagement included seaweed foraging, oyster farming, introducing Puerto Rican vejigante masks to a local art group, collecting litter on behalf of the national Tidy Towns organization, weeding a dye garden, and in exchange, learning to make pigment from hazel trees. Interdisciplinary Art in Ireland allowed the commitment time to dedicate and focus on art, absorb new cultural perspectives, explore landscape, and orchestrate exchanges within the local community.

Artists featured in Ireland Abroad include: Spencer Barry, August Balderrama, Marie Calabrese, Kate Callaway, Eva Colon, Max Dings, Addy Franklin, Melissa Furness, Megan Hatak, Rian Kerrane, Raven Lowry, Brittany Loya, Evan Miller, Edward Oliver and Maya Ploi Blasi.

Image credit: Megan Hatak, Painting Studies, 2025